The Internet has developed rapidly over the past several years, and is known as a very useful tool for obtaining and/or providing various information. Many people or companies who want to provide certain information about their businesses have a web site which is accessible by customers or clients (i.e., Internet users) through the Internet. The Internet users can obtain information by visiting web sites which are chosen by inputting web site addresses. For example, consumer product companies (e.g., The Procter & Gamble Company) have their own web sites (e.g., at an Internet address: http://www.pg.com/) which can provide information about their products as well as other information. Consumers can obtain necessary or desired information about their products by accessing to the web site through the Internet.
It is generally recognized in many countries (e.g., Japan) that the number of the aged people has been and/or will be increasing. It is also anticipated that the number of incontinent persons who need caregivers' helps will be increasing. It is generally understood that the increase of incontinent persons (in particular adult incontinent persons) significantly affects people's lives not only for the incontinent persons but also caregivers who take care of such incontinent persons. Caregivers tend to face various issues when taking care of incontinent persons. These issues are not same and very dependent on caregivers' situations since the conditions of their incontinent persons are different individually. This fact tends to result in lack of appropriate information for caregivers to take care of incontinent persons appropriately. For example, while a caregiver needs information about a disposable incontinence article(s) and/or an adult incontinence device(s) which is most appropriate to his/her incontinent person or situation, the caregiver can not easily access to and thus get appropriate information which best meets the needs. Examples of information about a disposable incontinence article(s) needed by users herein include the brand names, kinds and types, and sellers' names of disposable incontinence articles, their usage instruction, and general educational information for taking care of incontinent persons by using the disposable incontinence article(s). These types of information is needed since they are not sufficient even among professional caregivers such as home helpers, nurses and social workers as well as professional advisers such as pharmacists and medical doctors.
In addition, although the caregivers' burden is generally recognized as a big issue, there is no method for evaluating the same. Such a measurement is important since if there is too much burden for a caregiver, there may be an issue in the manner and/or the quality for taking care of his/her incontinent person, for example, an inappropriate selection and/or use of disposable incontinence articles and/or incontinence devices, an inappropriate method for taking care of the incontinent person, and the like.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for users of incontinence devices to provide recommendation of appropriate disposable incontinence articles to be used based on their situations. There is also a need for users of incontinence devices to provide recommendation of an appropriate combination of two (or more) disposable incontinence articles to be used based on their situations thereby making the care easier and more effective. There is further a need to analyze caregivers' quality of lives and provide recommendation for improving the same.